Positives, Negatives, and Gratitude
Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
November 13, 2019
“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
In
recent weeks, I have seen examples of people claiming Christian faith arguing positions
of bitterness and confrontation: the Rev. Franklin Graham calling on the
faithful to pray that God confound the enemies of President Trump, Cardinal Raymond
Burke condemning Pope Francis’ call for greater empathy for gays and lesbians
and perhaps permission (gasp!) for married men in some regions to be ordained
as priests, labeling these as profoundly disturbing and troubling to the
faithful, and an Episcopal monk online condemning as bigots and “unwoke” mutual
acquaintances who hesitate to use a plural pronoun for an individual identifying
as non-binary in gender.
Their
barely contained anger and resentment contrasted with my memories of a former
mentor and spiritual director of mine: a
Buddhist nun in a small temple in the mountains north of Taipei Taiwan. She was joyous. I can’t think of a time when I did not see
her smiling. She clearly said and
expressed her beliefs and opinions, but there was never a whiff of anger or resentment
in her. All she did was done with joy,
gratitude, and empathy for others, especially those who disagreed with
her.
We
are called to be Jesus’ disciples. That
means following him, and emulating him. He
had his enemies, to be sure. And he said
that in following him, we would have enemies also. But he taught clearly: love your
enemies. It is clear that on rare
occasion Jesus got angry or impatient with those who used religion as a means
of oppressing others, spelling out in no uncertain terms where he thought they
had gone astray. But when I think of Jesus,
I think of him with that gentle smile of deep joy of my Buddhist master, not
with the condemning grimace of partisan purity.
We
often think that following Jesus means conforming to outward rules or higher principles,
following his “commandments” and keeping his “ways.” But if
this is mere outward conformity of actions or inward thought-policing, it misses the heart of the matter.
Jesus
invites us into metanoia, often translated as “repentance,” but better
understood as “a change of the mind” or “a turning of the heart.” Jesus invites us to close relationship with
God, who in his mind was not a warring potentate or dour judge, but rather an
intimate and loving parent. Gratitude should be our default. Gratitude drives out fear, alienation, and
contempt. It encourages empathy and
forgiveness. That is why he asks us to
pray “forgive us our debts as we forgive the debts owed us.”
The
fruits of the spirit according to Galatians are “love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control” (5:22). If we think we
are being touched by the spirit or spoken to by God, but what we get is anger,
resentment, fear, and contention, we are probably mistaken. Joy and peace are what the spirit give, what
God inspires in our hearts, not partisan posturing or manipulation of others so
that they give us what we want in a constant struggle for dominance of
submission.
Perhaps as a check on ourselves and
the lies we tell ourselves, we should ask ourselves, throughout the day, “Am I
smiling?” “Am I trying to understand
this person so different from me?” “Am I
thankful?” When angry, we should ask, “What
is it about me that makes me react in this way? What fears and insecurities?” and not “why can’t that creep over there just
change?”
Grace and peace,
Fr. Tony+
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